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Israel and the US are considering a joint surgical strike targeting Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, according to a report in Foreign Policy that appeared Monday soon after Republican candidate Mitt Romney slammed US President Barack Obama's Iran policy.

"Iran today has never been closer to a nuclear weapons capability," Romney said in a foreign policy address delivered at the Virginia Military Institute. "And it has never acted less deterred by America."

Soon after those comments, David Rothkopf - who wrote unflatteringly of Romney that this was one of the first times recently he addressed foreign policy without "tripping over his own misstatements" - reported that the White House and Israeli officials "assert that the two sides behind the scenes have come closer together in their views [regarding Iran] in recent days."

Rothkopf, who was an undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration, wrote that "while there may not be exact agreement on what constitutes a 'red line' - a sign of Iranian progress toward the development of nuclear weapons that would trigger military action - the military option being advocated by the Israelis is considerably more limited and lower risk than some of those that have been publicly debated."